dinogirl
- 7
- reviews
- 21
- helpful votes
- 210
- ratings
-
Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
- By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 1 hr and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 936
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 797
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 795
A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking her how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie's letter of response.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Distracting narrator choice
- By Heather on 03-30-19
This should be required reading for all humans.
Reviewed: 03-11-17
This book should be required reading, not just for the parents of baby girls, but for all adult humans. I bought both the Kindle and Audible versions of this book, and I know I'll refer to both versions regularly.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie dispenses some serious wisdom with honesty, warmth, and compassion. I can't recommend this more highly. Loved it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Breakfast of Champions
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: John Malkovich
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,351
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,919
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 3,910
Breakfast of Champions (1973) provides frantic, scattershot satire and a collage of Vonnegut's obsessions. His recurring cast of characters and American landscape was perhaps the most controversial of his canon; it was felt by many at the time to be a disappointing successor to Slaughterhouse-Five, which had made Vonnegut's literary reputation.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Kurt Was Right to Grade This a C
- By Dubi on 01-10-16
- Breakfast of Champions
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: John Malkovich
Great book — bad version
Reviewed: 02-14-16
Vonnegut is my favorite author, period. Even the books that I would say are not among my favorites from him are still worthwhile reads to me, and I have enjoyed the audio versions of several of his works. That said — I would recommend skipping this version.
First, Breakfast of Champions relies on Vonnegut's drawings which are peppered throughout the text. In this audio version, Malkovich breaks the narrative over and over again to say, "And here is a drawing of _______." If you have read the book in print, this might not bother you, but if you've not read it, please start there.
Second, I thought that John Malkovich's reading would be amazing. And parts of it are. However, many many more parts are mediocre at best. Sentences run together, lines sound as if they were being read for the first time. I honestly expected much better and was pretty disappointed in it.
TL;DR — Please do read "Breakfast of Champions." But do so in a visual, rather than an auditory, version.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
1Q84
- By: Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin - translator, Philip Gabriel - translator
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett
- Length: 46 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 10,783
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9,493
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 9,468
The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - "Q" is for "question mark". A world that bears a question....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
WOW, WOW, WOW.
- By Amanda on 11-06-11
- 1Q84
- By: Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin - translator, Philip Gabriel - translator
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett
I love Murakami, but I hated 1Q84.
Reviewed: 10-02-14
I absolutely hated this book. The combination of incredibly verbose writing, very little happening, and Allison Hiroto's O.Ver.E.Nun.Ci.A.Tion was just too much for me. Before 1Q84, I would have told you that Murakami was my favorite living writer, but I am going to have to rethink that after this one. And yes, I have read everything of his that has been translated to English...
I thought both Marc Vietor and Mark Boyett gave great performances, but I reached a point of having to listen to Ms Hiroto at 1.5x speed just to get through her labored passages.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Tommy's Tale
- A Novel
- By: Alan Cumming
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 164
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 149
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 150
Tommy is 29, lives and loves in London, and has a morbid fear of the "C" word (commitment), the "B" word (boyfriend), and the "F" word (forgetting to call his drug dealer before the weekend). But when he begins to feel the urge to become a father, and the pressure from his boyfriend to settle down, Tommy starts to wonder if his chosen lifestyle can ever make him happy. Faced with the choice between maintaining his hedonistic existence or chucking it all in favor of a far more sensitive, fulfilling, and slightly more staid lifestyle, Tommy finds himself in a true quandary.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
weird, fun, but sort of messed up
- By undrwo on 04-02-15
- Tommy's Tale
- A Novel
- By: Alan Cumming
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming
Really enjoyed it.
Reviewed: 10-02-14
Let me state this first: if you are put off by drug use and/or sex (both hetero and homo, both intimate and anonymous), you will not like this book. I am put off by neither, and I really enjoyed it.
As the summary says, the book follows a few months in the life of a 29 year-old self-proclaimed party boy in London. There are clubs, drugs, parties, and some seriously seedy behavior in the disabled loo. You'll learn about lampshade design, hangover avoidance, the power of baths, and the emotional blackmail of a particularly precocious child.
I think Alan Cumming is the best (or certainly one of the best) book readers out there, and if you enjoy him as an actor, performer, activist, and human, you will likely enjoy this book, too. I'll admit my bias here — I adore him — and I loved Tommy's Tale.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
11 people found this helpful
-
Me Talk Pretty One Day
- By: David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 12,182
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,796
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,767
David Sedaris' collection of essays - including live recordings! - tells a most unconventional life story. With every clever turn of a phrase, Sedaris brings a view and a voice like no other to every unforgettable encounter. You can also listen to Sedaris in an interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Subtly Funny Musings on Life Experiences
- By FanB14 on 09-03-12
- Me Talk Pretty One Day
- By: David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris
No Rooster, sadly, but otherwise wonderful.
Reviewed: 04-09-12
"Me Talk Pretty One Day" is hilarious, poignant, and absurd, and Sedaris is, as always, a stellar narrator. I absolutely loved it. I subtracted one star overall, because my favorite story form the book, "You Can't Kill the Rooster" was abridged out of it. Bummer. I would so love to hear David Sedaris read that one.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Quicksilver
- The Baroque Cycle, Volume One
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble, Stina Nielsen
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Abridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 202
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 58
Quicksilver is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe, in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Bluntly adridged
- By Jimbo on 12-07-04
- Quicksilver
- The Baroque Cycle, Volume One
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble, Stina Nielsen
ABRIDGED?!?!?!?
Reviewed: 08-02-10
Nowhere on the information page does it say this is abridged, but it is! I am so upset ??? I wouldn't have bought it if I knew. I love this book and was very much looking forward to experiencing it again. What a waste of Audible credit.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Foucault's Pendulum
- By: Umberto Eco
- Narrated by: Tim Curry
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 708
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 541
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 533
One Colonel Ardenti, who has unnaturally black, brilliantined hair, a carefully groomed mustache, wears maroon socks, and who once served in the Foreign Legion, starts it all. He tells three Milan book editors that he has discovered a coded message about a Templar Plan, centuries old and involving Stonehenge, a plan to tap a mystic source of power far greater than atomic energy.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
too much missing
- By Kenneth on 01-29-07
- Foucault's Pendulum
- By: Umberto Eco
- Narrated by: Tim Curry
such a shame
Reviewed: 05-06-10
I love this book, and I love Tim Curry. However, I do not love this recording at all. Basically the issues can be summed up as thus: the way it is abridged makes it difficult to follow if you haven't already read the full text; and the quality of the audio recording (although NOT the quality of the narration, which is excellent) makes listening difficult at best. This is such a shame, as I love the text and the reader and had hoped for great things.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
62 people found this helpful